Hoboken bonded $5m in 2014. Where are we exactly on that project 4 years later? I thought the plan was to remove all of the permit-parking only signs and replace them with smart-meters, but it seems to me this project has stalled.

We were also supposed to look at structuring the meters for higher costs along Washington Street, and other popular roads, to encourage people to park for short amounts of time on roads like Washington, rather than park for 3-4 hours. Most people, like myself, just want to park on Washington, pop into a store for about 10-30 minutes, and leave, rather than having to park in a parking garage. We should scale parking meters along Washington Street to be $2.50 for 15 minutes, $5 for 30 minutes. If someone wants to parked for 3-4 hours - they should be encouraged to park in a municipal parking garage rather than on the street, or pick a street that is away from Washington Street and cheaper to park. The idea of scaling was something that Zimmer mentioned 4 years ago and no one has moved forward here.

2. The public is howling for better streets. Washington is one example, but a simple fix is raising the residential parking from $15 per year to $300 per year (senior citizens and students should get a waiver). While no one wants to pay MORE, if you prove that this money would go DIRECTLY towards Hoboken DPW projects, rather than into the city coffers, I think the pill would be easier to swallow. If you have 10,000 residents who pay $15 a year that is only $150,000 a year we use for our streets. Whereas raising to $300 would generate $3 million a year which can be used to repave many streets - an especially bad street is Clinton street between Newark all the way to 5th street. 13th and Monroe literally has a hump in the middle of the road. Your car will tilt sideways - how has it that NO ONE has done anything about this in 10 years?

3. Shouldn't we consider signs at our parking garages (and ideally at our borders, like at Newark/Jersey Avenue train bridge for the south and Willow/Park Avenue for the north that show which municipal parking garages have open parking spaces? Picture included. Easily paid for if we raised residential street parking to $300.

4. The timers at 14th street & Willow traffic lights are not correct. I drive here every day at 5pm. By the time the light turns yellow at 14th street, the light at 13th and Willow is already red. The traffic backs up from 13th and Willow to 14th and Willow and often blocks the crosswalk & some cars get stuck in the middle of the road. It causes major headaches.

5. Please don't remove 12th street between Jefferson and Madison for the new park. I drive here daily. It is already extremely difficult to get North-South in Hoboken, and removing this road would cut off south bound traffic 14th street to use Jefferson to go to south. If anything reconnect Jefferson and then remove 12th between Jefferson & Madison. It will allow for one continuous park to be utilized and also allow for traffic to move smoothly. If you are worried about speeding traffic, install speed bumps & parking signs.

6. I wrote about the idea of creating the Hoboken Roadway Patrol four years ago. It is a bit of a pie-in-the-sky idea, but I still think the idea considers merit. The HRP would be a law enforcement agency which has patrol jurisdiction over all Hoboken roadways (including any county roads within Hoboken's borders). The HRP could be a branch of the Division of Motor Vehicles in the Department of Public Works - or part of the current police force, but the goal is to free up police from roadway duties. Local police are primarily responsible for investigating and enforcing traffic laws - but having a HRP frees local police to focus on other tasks not related to the roadways. I wrote about in more in depth here:

Basically it is a fee to make sure you are a legitimate resident of the city of Hoboken who wants to park a car, registered in NJ to park here. The fee orginally was simply $15, and living here since 1995 it's always been that cost.

I'm someone that doesn't believe that street parking should be free. I think we have an issue of supply and demand. Our supply is the number of parking spots that are available on our streets. The demand is the number of people who want to park on the street, which is cheaper than renting or buying a dedicated parking spot.

Also we live in a city where you have homeowners, renters and people who live in subsidized housing.

I own my home. I pay my taxes every year. My taxes go to various city services to support things I need and things my neighbor may need. My taxes pay for children, which I do not have, to go to school everyday. I'm fine with my taxes helping others. People who rent say, "Well my rent goes to paying taxes!" - that's not 100% true especially for those who live in PILOT buildings that paid a fee years ago instead of paying taxes for city services like the rest of us. We have many, many buildings in Hoboken today that do not pay a dime in taxes for over 20 years. Also we have people who live in subsidized housing with Federal and state funds - are they paying their fair share in taxes?

The proposal the other day to city council was raising the free from $15 a year (4 cents a day) to $300 a year (.82 cents a day). The first reaction is, "Why raise it at all?"

Currently I estimate we have about 10,000 registered cars in Hoboken. At $15 each, we get $150,000 a year from that revenue. If it was raised to $300 a year, it would generate $3 MILLION dollars a year. What could we do with $3m a year?

First, I would think we need more municipal garages. If we used the $3m a year to pay for the construction of garages, that would mean more parking for residents and visitors. Also, garages would generate revenue from people parking in them. Less cars on the street, and more revenue for the city. That's a win-win.

Second, i'd like to see our streets pristine. I'd like to see them pothole free and paved on a regular schedule. Also, I would suggest we use the funds to fix our sewer system, which is in dire need to be upgraded.

Third, raising the fee to $300 a year, someone might reconsider their "need" for a car and try to live, like I did, without a car. Having a car is freedom and while you can't argue that it is pretty nice to have that freedom, I found that saving thousands of dollars a year in not owning a car was one of the key reasons why I was able to save enough money to buy a condo and fund my retirement in my 401K. Small price to pay for those things.

Even after reading this you still believe it is a "cash grab", ask yourself one question: Is it really TOO MUCH to pay .82 cents a day to own a car in Hoboken if you know that the money would go to fund parking garages, pave our streets and fix our constantly breaking sewer system?

Residents who live along Newark Street can all agree on one thing - the road between Willow and Jackson has turned into a high speed mess. Ask anyone trying to cross Newark and you are literally playing with your life, cars constantly ignore pedestrians at crosswalks and zip down the street often breaking our 25 per mile speed limits. Cars ignore stop signs constantly, and it is only getting worse.

What's changed?

First, the changes to Observer Highway has caused residents to realize that it is easier to speed down Newark Street than use Observer. Observer Highway is a failure. It is an example of Dawn patting people on their heads with her stats and telling us "We know better than you". It smacks of something from the Clinton Playbook, how they tell us how the world works. We all know that we need to scrap the single lane solution on Observer. It isn't working Mrs. Mayor.

Third, why does 14th and Bloomfield get two dedicated people to work that street every day from 5pm to 7pm? I agree that is a busy spot, but why isn't Newark Street getting some love, especially for the folks at 415 Newark Street. They are trying to cross the street on a daily basis, and no one cares about them. Put a crosswalk guard out there, at least temporarily, until we can fix Newark Street.

Fourth, the solution that Dawn presents involves installing 24 hour a day 7 day a week flashing Pedestrian cross walk signs. I think we need to look into RRFB Pedestrian walk signs which flash on demand. Look at Newark Street at Adams and Grand and they are an eye-sore. The Zimmer plan is to install more at Willow, Clinton, Grand, Adams, Jefferson - the whole street is going to be a mess of flashing lights 24/7. What we need along Newark are better street lights and having lights that flash on demand. I have stood at Grand and Newark with Rocco and people are desensitized to the constant flashing light. They don't understand i'm trying to cross at that moment. Wheras if you push the signal, the light begins to flash, warning cars that someone wants to cross the street - at that moment. We have it at my office at work for employees to cross from the parking lot, and it works perfectly.

I rarely come out and disagree with Dawn Zimmer, but she needs to take a serious look at fixing Observer Highway, fixing the situation at congestion on Newark and Harrison/Jackson. Her solution is making one-way streets, when the real solution is to WIDEN THE ROAD. Here's a perfect example of that at Newark between Grove and Marin. Narrow the sidewalk, create a lane of traffic.Traffic coming from Jersey Avenue and Newark is too narrow. Did you hear about the planned construction on our borders at the old Emerson Radio Factory? They want to build 26 story buildings there. Think about all the new traffic on Jersey Avenue on our same narrow roadways. It is going to be hell to get off the turnpike and traffic will be backed up even worse.

We need less talk and more action. I fully get how Dawn Zimmer includes the public in plans, but the people last night were loud and clear. The problem is...I fully expect Dawn will pat us on our heads tell us "We know better than you" and not listen to our suggestions.

Everyone is pissed off about the "protected" bike lanes on Washington. I will go on record that I liked the idea at first. Then I actually listened to the complaints from residents and business owners. My opinion changed for one simple reason:

People. Are. Idiots.

Please, let me explain. Living here for 22 years and watching people walk and drive around this town has led me to a simple conclusion. We, as a society, are selfish. We don't give a rats ass about other people, except ourselves. Pedestrains jaywalk and do not pay attention to their surroundings. Car drivers blow through stop signs, double park, and ignore crosswalks. I'm telling you that the day I die is getting hit by a car at Newark and Willow, I have had three near misses in the last 6 months, and what can I do - call the cops saying "Help! I was NEARLY hit by a car!", they would snort and hang up the phone.

People are selfish - and if you add protected bike lanes to a highly congested roadway and a highly congested sidewalk what will happen are people who will cross the street, ignore the bike lane and get hit by a bike rider. Or, you will get someone turning off Washington Street, not pay attention, and mow down someone in the protected bike lane.

We can say "It works in the Netherlands!" all we want. We can point to studies and articles and journals and trot out Nobel Award winning scientists - it doesn't matter. Most of the people crying out about this are like me, we are Hoboken residents who have been here long enough and have a doctorate in Stupidity by just watching how people act in this town.

I agree we need protected bike lanes to let people traverse north-south in Hoboken on a bike. Some of the people said, "Hey you already have the waterfront for that?"

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

No one is going to ride to the fucking waterfront to go North or South in Hoboken unless you live on the Waterfront or Hudson Street. No one likes going "the long way" to get somewhere - and if you live on 1st and Adams, you won't ride all the way up to the waterfront, then go north, then turn back west to get to your destination.

No, the simple solution is a central road that also has enough room for a protected bike lane. Now, my solution is simple, you need to make Clinton and Willow street with protected bike lanes. Why?

1. They are centrally located, nearly in the middle of Hoboken.
2. They are wider than "normal streets".
3. There is less traffic when compared to Washington Street.

Take a look at these pictures. The first one is Clinton Street, which has an unprotected bike lane:

This is Park Avenue, which clearly is too narrow:

What i'm not 100% sure is if we add protected bike lanes to Willow/Clinton will that cause any issues with the NJ transit buses. Certainly needs to be checked out before doing so. But, lets assume they won't have an issue.

This would be a perfect location for the protected bike lanes. If you wanted to get to Washington street you can use these corridors to get North/South and then turn up whatever street to get to Washington. For example, if i'm downtown and wanted to get to Cafe Elysian, I would take Clinton uptown to 9th, ride 9th to Washington and then take the sidewalk (yes, you can ride on sidewalks in Hoboken, as long as if you aren't riding faster than pedestrians).

From what I am told City Hall does not control the library. It is made up of a board, along with a director. They are independent of city control, but the board members are appointed by the mayor for 5 year terms. So, whereas it is technically independent from City Hall, it still is comprised of people appointed by our mayor.

Think of the possibilities:

1. To get a cup of coffee, latte or cappuccino near to the park, there is only Empire Coffee and Tea on 4th and Bloomfield. This location would be on 5th between Park & Willow.
2. It would encourage more people to use the library as a social gathering point for doing work, rather than Starbucks.
3. The City of Hoboken & The Public Library generates revenue from leasing its location and that money can be used for renovations, upgrades and purchases to make the library even better.

Repost from the last three years, and will continue to repost it until the parade returns.

Often in my blog, I laud Mayor Zimmer. I think she's fantastic, and most everything she has done I have agreed with.

Most everything.

One of the hot topics where I disagree is the St. Patrick's Day parade. This isn't a simple issue. It's complex. There's certainly a lot of people affected by it, and the most obvious issue that critics point to is "quality of life".

Things that can't be disputed that on our parade day there are lots of people who come to Hoboken who could care less about a parade, and are simply looking for an excuse to drink. Considering that most of our fund raisers (Restore Our Shore at City Bistro or The Gala to Rebuild Hoboken) revolve around serving alcohol. You disagree? Try to have either of those events in a "family friendly" setting. Take away the bars from those fundraisers or any serving of alcohol & move those events to a Wednesday night. Think they would have the same turnout? You and I both know they wouldn't.

As for the issue of crime. Recently the city council discussed that last year crime was down compared to years past, and are using that as a reason why moving the parade to a Wednesday was a success. First off, there were far less people in town last year for the "LepreCon", even if 10,000 people online said they RSVP'd - a simple walk around town proved that there were far fewer people versus years past. Hence...less crime. Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining. Of course if you have less people in town you will have less crime. That shouldn't be a reason to cancel this parade.

Here's the easy solutions that can bring the parade back to the weekends and make everyone happy:

1. Schedule it for a Sunday, not a Saturday. The argument from The Hoboken St. Patrick's Day Committee was that participants could not do a weekday parade because many of them are working. Saturday was the reason, but i'm sure most people will be able to make a Sunday parade. Plus, most younger adults can drink with wild abandon on a Saturday afternoon, whereas most younger adults may have a good time - but many of them have jobs on Monday and that will temper HOW drunk they get.

2. Move the Parade to Sinatra Drive. This is for multiple reasons. One, the argument from store owners is that they didn't like so many people blocking their store fronts. Two, this blocks major traffic on Washington Street. Three, people live along Washington Street & are affected by the quality of life. Let's move it to Sinatra Drive, where people can easily line up and watch the parade, with NYC as the backdrop. Have the parade begin at 11th Street and "end" at the Beer Garden, with Erie-Lackawanna Park and Hudson Place cars & taxis removed. People who want to watch the parade without having to listen to loud music & revelers along Washington Street can enjoy it without people bumping into them or making noise.

3. Create a Beer Garden for people to drink & charge them. We have similar tents for The St. Ann's Festival. Plus the St. Ann's Festival has live music. The Nerds played there last time. Why not do the same thing for the St. Patrick's Day event? We had Mumford & Sons play on Pier A last summer. I would do the same event, with live Irish Bands. This would do two things: 1. Less house parties and 2. Keep the drinkers in a place where they can be easily controlled.
It won't stop the house parties. It won't stop bars from having people drink. What it will do is diffuse those events by taking the 17,000 people who would normally be at a house party or a bar - and put them in front of the police. It will allow us to hire Class 2 police or, perhaps, a professional security company (like ones you see at other outdoor concerts) to patrol the "St. Patrick's Day Beer Garden", while "regular" police can patrol the city and respond to calls of disturbances. Visibly intoxicated people at the Beer Garden will be removed with zero tolerance.
Also, the money raised from this event can offset the clean up costs. Mumford & Sons attracted 17,000 people - and they sold beer at that event. Lets imagine to attend the Beer Garden you need a wristband to enter, each wristband is $5. Beer is $4 each, much like you would find at any bar in Hoboken. The wristbands alone would generate $85,000 (17,000 times $5). That's not including what the beer would generate, which I would hazard to say if everyone had 1 drink, that would be $51,000 (this includes beer costs, which would probably be $1 per drink, so expect $3 profile per beer). Also, I would hire for this event licensed Hoboken bartenders at $200 each - and there will be plenty of them available that aren't working the bar that day (trust me, as someone who bartended for 10+ years you can find free bartenders who want to make easy money pouring beer.

4. Create a "Family Friendly" area at the Hoboken Little League field. Its a large open space which is close to the parade & allows for kids and adults to watch the parade pass by on Sinatra Drive - with a fenced in area so its easy to watch your kids!

5. Work with the bar community. I know more than this than the average citizen. I happen to be friends with many bar owners. You know what they all say - they didn't like the parade. Yes, it increases revenue. But the headache of dealing with drunks on that day - by hiring more security and dealing with drunks really doesn't make it "worth it". An interesting idea would be the following: Bar owners agree that patrons need to buy wristbands to enter their bars - just like the beer garden. The wristbands are a $5 charge, and proceeds will go towards the city. Bars need to "buy" them from the city before the parade.
So, for example, Bar XYZ buys 1,000 wrist bands for that day or $5,000 which they resell. Now, no one is stopping Bar XYZ from selling those at a fair market value. They could sell them at $5....or $20. We all know that bars have a cover on parade days - plus people can then go to the bar or the Beer Garden. Say someone wants to do a few hours at the Beer Garden, and then join their friends at a bar - they can flash their wristband and don't have to pay a cover. People will say "Why should I pay for a $20 wristband at Bar XYZ, when its only $5 at the Beer Garden". Simple, supply and demand and the bars choice on what they price.
Also if someone leaves the bar for a smoke or whatever and they return with a wristband - then they aren't charged a cover again. The bar is "asked" to buy the number of wristbands equal to their occupancy. So, if Bar XYZ has 300 capacity, they buy $1500 worth of wristbands (if not more), which they make their money back by selling to people at $5 each - or maybe even giving those wristbands for free to their "regulars" (the bar eats the cost of $5, like a buyback). This is the easy way to create a Parade Tax, and if you figure we have 80 bars in town and even 40 of those bars get on board and buy on average 200 wristbands, that is $40,000 that the bars just generated for the city - if not more. Its more money than the ill-planned "fund" that Mayor Zimmer tried in 2009. Plus, my idea is $5 for a wristband. You could make them $10 each.

Use the parade to our advantage. My ideas would absolutely work, generate revenue for clean up costs and security costs - I hazard to say the city could generate $175,000+ on parade day (and that's a conservative estimate). It would satisfy the parade committee and if not keep all the curmudgeon homeowners happy, it would satisfy most of them except for the vocal NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) types who will never be happy.

When Hoboken Reform started, we all we united under the idea of a "better" Hoboken. We didn't want Hoboken to become like Newport in Jersey City (and still don't), with high rise buildings dominating the Hoboken skyline. We didn't want corruption and back room deals by people who had connections in the city. We didn't want special rules for those who had a hand in someone's pocket.

When Dawn Zimmer, Rhavi Bhalli, Dave Mello, Peter Cunningham and Carol Marsh were swept into office, it was a signal that times are changing for the better. Many of their actions over the last two terms have been worthy of applause and there have been other actions which I have raised an eyebrow at the poor decisions that were made.

Many residents might have heard about a proposed development at 1300 Jefferson Street. Currently the site is an abandoned factory, and surrounding the lot isn't any residental space. Its almost as far to the border of Hoboken and we can get.

The proposal was to turn the site into mixed use development by the same developers who created Pilsener Haus and Biergarten. The majority of the story you can read here.

There's NOTHING in the part of town for the proposed mixed use development. Adding a 14 story tower, along with a rock climbing gym and bowling alley would be great for Hoboken. Imagine a Brooklyn Bowl style bowling alley - which has also a music stage too? Everyone wins here.

Last night the Zoning Board voted down the proposal 5-2 against even when faced with a large crowd of community activists who have been adamant about their fear of overdevelopment - and they were FOR the proposal.

We can all sit here and shrug our shoulders or do something about it. Post about it on your Facebook wall. Write your local councilperson. Ask Dawn Zimmer. Why is progress stalling in Hoboken? The community came together to bring reform to Hoboken and it worked. Change can happen, but it takes your voice to change that.

In 2008, the owner of the Neumann Leather Building, at 300 Observer Highway, had a proposal to knock the building(s) down and build new condos. The artists and tenants at the building, along with the residents united in a common front to staunchly protest this plan and have the Hoboken City Council deny them variances & zoning changes to move forward with their plan. I, myself, spoke at the City Council meeting to protest changing the site, and wrote about it here.

Last night the City of Hoboken sponsored a community meeting to gather input from residents and tenants called "NEUMANN LEATHERS REDEVELOPMENT PLAN COMMUNITY WORKSHOP". As per the city's email:

"The plan will address possibilities of adaptive reuse of buildings, needs for improving utilities, traffic around the site, and potential uses and density for development of the area.

The public is invited to participate in this process. This first community workshop will include exercises to recognize the existing conditions of the site and surrounding area, as well as identify constraints and opportunities for the future development of the area. This will inform the planning and design process for the project team of planners, engineers, economists, architects and landscape architects. The consultant will gather the community feedback from this meeting to help develop a vision for the area and determine appropriate alternatives for a comprehensive plan for the area."

In laymen's terms : They want to see where the public stands on the site & any kind of changes to it - from minor facade repairs to drastic changes. Most (not all) of the people I talked to had this to say:

We like the building, but would also like to see the exterior windows and facade cleaned up & restored.

We like the artists and tenants, and don't want to see them forced out - and definitely do not want more condos.

The city needs industrial lofts. We have enough nail salons, frozen yogurt and sushi restaurants.

The open blacktop parking lot is an eyesore & a waste of good space.

With that said, if I had a magic wand, this is what I would change at the Neumann Leather site, and I think it would be a win/win for everyone from the tenants, the neighborhood and the owners.

#1 - Allow the owner to develop the parking lot into condos.

Condos? NO! NO! We don't need more condos you said it yourself!

Just hear me out.

I'm in the camp that i'd like to see the Neumann Leather building remain where it is and not to displace the tenants. I'm also in the camp that the building looks like shit. I don't think anyone can disagree with me there. The Neumann Leather building is ugly. They have some windows with cement cinder blocks and other windows with broken, chipped windows. It's ugly. The sidewalks are cracked around the entire building. There is one single, lonely, tree planted outside by the bus stop.

Six years ago the public was fairly united that we would love to see the building restored, and the area around it cleaned up. The problem is that the owners have no real incentive to do this. Why would he? Out of the goodness of his heart? The owner doesn't even live in Hoboken - from what I understand he lives in North Carolina and could give a shit about the site aside from collecting money from tenants. The sidewalks are never plowed after snowstorms.

The owner, however, knows that he is sitting on a gold mine. The location is fantastic, and building there would mean a lot of new revenue. The compromise would be to allow for the parking lot to be replaced by a new residential building. Preferably a building that has three bedroom condos, something that we sorely lack in Hoboken. I also would hope that however the new building is designed that it has a new parking garage built into the building, so that tenants of the building can park there for free, or a modest cost like $5 a day (or $100 a month). Also the building should be in line with other buildings that surround it, so no more than 12 stories (Observer Plaza is next to Neumann Leathers at 12 stories tall).

Red: Allow for developmentWhite: Do not developGreen: Create a pocket park or cobblestone courtyard for community events like farmers marketYellow: These aren't part of Neumann Leather, but they are already under construction or slated for new construction.Blue: Pedestrian/Bike Pathway between the building connecting Newark St and Observer Highway.

Allowing for this development then needs to be tied into my next point:

I think a big win for Hoboken would be attracting a Whole Foods or Sprouts Farmers Market. A perfect location would be here. I think a creative campaign by the city and the owner here could absolutely land a premium super market for this location. Parking wouldn't be an issue, since a new parking garage would be built on site for those who want to park there. I know, for example that the sitemap I drew with yellow stripes also planned to put in a public parking garage, too, along with condos.

How does everyone win?

The owner wins because they can develop (some of) their site, which allows them to generate revenue.
The neighborhood wins because they get a restored, beautiful building, open space (or a cobblestone open courtyard), and a Whole Foods.
The tenants win because we keep the industrial lofts for them.

I think this is a compromise that allows everyone to get what they want, if we allow for some minor changes.

Yesterday I was walking to Crossfit Hoboken, and what did I see? I cruiser parked on Newark between Madison & Monroe, waiting. I walk up to the police officer and ask him to roll down his window. I said, "Too bad you are in a marked car - if you had an undercover car you would be catching a lot of people!"

Hats off to the Hoboken Police. Great job! I like seeing more proactive police work rather than just reacting to a 911 phone call. Keep up the good work. Now, if someone is reading this at City Hall, can I talk to you about re-painting the crosswalks along Newark Street? Also would love to see a stop sign at Newark and Clinton, on the Eastbound side, while we are at it.